Contaminant control and recirculation filters have a variety of uses, including uses in electronic equipment. In the computer industry, contaminant control and recirculation filters are used within enclosures for electronic devices to protect the electronic components from particulate and gaseous contaminants. For example, disk drives often include contaminant control and recirculation filters within the disk drive enclosure to protect the drive components and the disks from contaminants including water vapor, organic vapor, and out-gassing. Without such protection, these contaminants can lead to stiction, corrosion, and, in some instances, drive failure.
Frequently, contaminant control and recirculation filters have either a loose fill contaminant control (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,335) or a compression molded contaminant control of various configurations (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,487 or No. 6,146,446). Each of these configurations offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. A loose fill contaminant control media is generally less expensive than one that is compression molded. However, loose fill contaminant control media is difficult to manipulate due to its granular or beaded nature, and can cause contamination of the clean room, the filter housing, and the surfaces that require welding after deposition of the loose fill contaminant control media. Compression molded contaminant controls are generally easier to handle and are cleaner to use in a clean room environment. However, they are more expensive, require tooling that adds to cost and labor time, and are much less efficient in contaminant adsorption. Clearly, a new filter design which overcomes these challenges would be desirable.